Bridal Shower by George Bilgere
Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five people
who are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.
And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.
And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself
meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.
I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.
You didn't want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter's bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.
O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,
after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.
When I read this poem, a loud HA, escaped from deep within.Customers on their cell phone or Bluetooth are among the rudest customers I deal with in the bookstore. They ask for assistance, or advise, then ignore the bookseller, who is trying to do her job and help them. Frequently, I'll just turn to the next customer and let them figure out they need to end their call or put it on hold, if they want assistance.
5 comments:
My favorites are the people on the subway ... when the train pulls into a station for about 30 seconds cellphones activate ... and people answer them and start conversations ... the train pulls out and they continue to talk to AIR .. connection is gone ... I try hard not to LOL ...
There are no manners. Cell phones in public are almost always rude. I only use them when I am someplace and have a question, then I excuse myself from the salesperson, go someplace quiet and make the call. (This is rare for me by the way.) Cell phones in general are not for conversations (unless you are at home at that is the phone you use), but for quick information. Call me crazy. I have a friend who visited Japan a couple of years ago. She said people there do NOT use cell phones in public. What an idea!
Kudos to you Jan, that person on the cell phone did not deserve any courtesy. If I recieve a call while I am in a store, I either step outside to continue or I will tell the caller I will get back to them. So people these days lack basic manners.
Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
In my job, since I am asking questions of a medical nature, I kinda need the customer's attention--full attention. *sigh* Some days I just want to slap people. Hard.
this is perfect. I find it completely offensive when people are using cell phones and bluetoothes.
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